Communism still present in many countries of Eastern Europe, bishops warn

Zagreb, Croatia, Feb 20, 2009 / 12:43 pm

The bishops of Eastern Europe issued a statement this week marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, warning that “the wounds caused by Communism continue to be present in the lives of the countries that suffered behind the Iron Curtain.”

Led by Cardinal Josip Bozanic, who is the Archbishop of Zagreb and the vice president of the Council of Episcopal Conferences of Europe, the bishops recalled that the Berlin Wall was for years a symbol “of division, fracture, distance and selfishness.”   

They said that one of their main concerns is “the permanence of the structures of Communism” through “legislation, judicial power, the economy, education and the culture.”

 This is evident, they pointed out, in the silence that persists about “events of the recent past.”

 The bishops expressed the need for the Church “to help rebuild the lives” of these countries.  “The Catholic Church must reconstruct the historical memory of the communist years” and fight against “the tendency to keep quiet about what really happened.”

Therefore the bishops announced a series of conferences of an historical character that will be held to “shed light on the life of the Church and of Christians during the Communist period.”